


Fire and Frost

by Karna97



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: !!!!!!!, F/M, I suck at multi-chaps, Jon Snow is a Targaryen, Light Angst, My First Fanfic, R Plus L Equals J, Season 8, So expect this account to be drowned in one-shots instead lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 05:53:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15745608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karna97/pseuds/Karna97
Summary: As the War for the Dawn reaches its final act, Jon reflect back on what has happened leading up its climax. Jon's POV.





	Fire and Frost

# Fire and Frost

Jon felt as though the world froze on its axis as the darkness of the Long Night was illuminated by a burst of light and heat. He turned his head towards the skies above Red Keep to see winged titans of incredible power collide and fill the air with fire and magic. Scarlet flame met azure in a vicious and vibrant battle for supremacy, a Dance of Dragons that would decide whether the world would ever see the dawn of a new spring again. Even with the fate of the living hinging on the outcome of this battle, it was hard for a small part Jon not to appreciate the spectacle unfolding before his eyes - the last scions of the gods of Old Valyria waging infernal war on one another. The incandescence of their meeting was nearly enough to blind him. And yet, despite bearing witness to a sight others could only read in stories, the crippling fear and sadness that bit his heart like fangs of ice overwhelmed his senses.

_Daenerys._

It seemed as though Rhaegal felt the same as he let out a cry of anguish at his family who were being forced to kill one another. _Our family_ , Jon reminded himself. _A family I may lose as quickly as I gained it._ Rhaegal's muscles were tense underneath him, at war with his desire to help his mother and brother and the orders he had been given by Dany and his rider. Jon rubbed his neck, trying to diffuse the tension both of them felt. The battle before them continued to set the sky ablaze, rays of colour bouncing off Rhaegal's emerald scales.

 _I want to help them too Rhaegal_ , Jon spoke through their shared bond. _But both you and I are new to this. We'd only hold them back if we engaged right now._ At the end of the day, he was a novice dragonrider, and Rhaegal has been flying solo for all this time. Were he to interfere in their duel, there wasn't even any guarantee he'd be able to stay securely atop his mount and still keep his wits about him to give Rhaegal direction. _It's days like these I wish I'd learned who I was earlier._

Rhaegal set his eyes of molten copper towards the menace who was riding he who was once his little brother. He looked long and hard, and in Jon's mind eye, Rhaegal's verdant flame rippled with hatred that nearly made Jon flinch. How desperate the dragon was to pluck the Night King from Viserion's back and grind him into shards of ice between his jaws; how much he _burned_ for revenge! Jon understood all too well. Hearing about Ned's death, confronting Ramsay Bolton, watching the flame of life leave Viserion as he sunk under the water...the urge to find and slaughter those who had wronged the people he loved in those times was all-consuming. It was far too easy to lose yourself in rage. And now, as the Night King forced brother to kill brother and son to kill mother in his quest for omnicide, Jon could feel those murderous impulses spark anew within him, the dragonblood in his veins boiling.

But the bite of ice in his wolfsblood kept him focused, tempering his anger into a burning cold steel, sharp as Valyrian. A dragon's strength is endless, unbridled, unrestrained. It corrupts and destroys those without the temperament to handle it. Targaryens have risen to greatness and fallen into madness by that same merit. To Jon, it only spoke to the strength of Dany's character that she birthed her children, these infernos made flesh, and didn't lose herself to the power she possessed. _You entrusted your son to me,_ Jon thought. _so I won't lose myself either._ It had taken time for Jon and Rhaegal to truly connect with each other. Rhaegal was almost nothing like Ghost - where Ghost was reserved and silent as snowfall, Rhaegal was boisterous and daring. Neither had been the biggest sibling, but both had an underlying intelligence that could not be underestimated. Their bond still fell short of almost symbiotic relationship Dany shared with her largest son, but the mutual respect and wish to protect each other was still there.

"Rhaegal's had a sense of loneliness that has lingered over him him since his brother died", Dany had once told him on Kingsroad, wrapped up in quilts and furs and each other. "Drogon may be his brother, but he's always been more content when left to himself. He's been trying to open himself up a bit more for Rhaegal's sake but...Viserion was always the kindest of them. The one who was happiest in the company of others. 

"I wish Rhaegal had someone the way Drogon has me. A rider he can call his own, a piece to fill the hole Viserion left. I try to make him feel loved and wanted but it will never be what I have with Drogon despite my best efforts. It's a wish that I doubt would ever be granted. I am the last Targaryen. The last..."

Jon had volunteered to try, out of love for Rhaegal's mother. Drogon had been receptive enough after all. Maybe he couldn't become his rider, but he could at least try to keep him company. Dany had thought he was jesting at first, but upon seeing the earnestness in his eyes, she had looked at him as though he'd hung the moon. It hadn't taken much else for the two of them to melt in each other again that night. 

Neither had known the truth then - but the dragons had known from the beginning. Ned Stark may have hidden his parentage from the world, but the senses of men couldn't compare to the senses of dragons.

Reaching out to his winged mount, Jon willed images into Rhaegal's mind; of himself and Rhaegal confronting the Night King for the final time, of them smiting the monstrosity with steel and flame, of them standing above the heap of crystalline ice that would remain of him. _Worry not, Rhaegal,_ Jon spoke to him, _in time we'll deliver to him the death he deserves. But now, we must believe in your mother and big brother. Believe they can defeat and ground Viserion. And then you'll have your vengeance. I swear this to you._

Begrudgingly, Rhaegal relented, the tautness of his muscles loosening. The verdant flame in Jon's mind lost none of its intensity, but instead turned from a raging maelstrom to a focused bolt of barely controlled energy. _Patience, Rhaegal_ , Jon urged. _Turn your attention to the dead men who march through the city for now. Return them to the dirt!_ Rhaegal was too happy to oblige, blitzing King's Landing streets with gouts of red and orange and yellow. Jon watched as the skeletal forms of the wights disintegrated, the flames dancing a deadly waltz as the ghouls fell by the hundreds. The warmth seeped into the marrow of Jon's bones, dispelling the cold of the Long Night and embracing him like a lover. _Like Dany_ , Jon mused with shadow of a smile on his face. _If the gods are good, it won't be too long before I can embrace her again. Her, and the miracle we created together._

Jon knew it was a lost cause to try and persuade Daenerys to sit the fight out - both he and Dany knew that her prowess on dragonback was needed - but that didn't make him not try to keep her away from the frontlines regardless, and it didn't make her adamance to stay on the battlefield until the bitter end any less aggravating. _If I fight, Jon, I may die. Of course I could,_ she'd said not much more than an hour ago. _But if I don't fight then there's no future for anyone! Not for me, you, or this life growing inside of me. Everyone is risking themselves for their duty, Jon. For the living. Let me risk myself for mine too._ Finding out she was pregnant by his seed the week before they embarked for King's Landing had served to both give him all the reason he needed to fight for survival and multiplied his fears tenfold. Her pregnancy was only discovered after she came close to knocking on death's door when Winterfell was ambushed by the Golden Company. _They made us think they were there to help...our naivete at their mummery nearly took her and our child from me_ , Jon thought bitterly. Two well-aimed arrows met the mark on her person - one in her thigh, the other only a few paces northwest from her heart. It was enough of a shock to dislodge Dany from Drogon's back and send her plummeting towards the blood-stained snows below. Jon remembered it like it was yesterday - the sheer dread that gripped his very soul as he watched his love descend, helpless. Had things happened a bit differently - whether that be the arrow fatally striking home or Drogon being moments slower to catch her - Jon was sure he would have died a second death far more painful than the first.

Her dragon children had gone berserk then, immolating whoever and whatever stood between them and their mother. Jon had taken a suicidal chance, on the blood of his father and his bond with Daenerys, and tried to calm them down in their madness. He'd denied that side of himself up until then, distanced himself from the last of his paternal family in his inner turmoil of who and what he really was. But coming so close to losing her made his reluctance towards embracing their love melt like sleet and dew in sunlight. Rhaegal had met his eyes then, with a gaze that betrayed his fear and anger and self-conflict. But his bronze eyes also showed an underlying sense of understanding. An understanding of who and what Jon was to them, and to Dany. In the end, his understanding won out, and he made way for Jon to reach Dany, who had been kneeling in the snow and gritting her teeth in barely restrained pain. 

_"Are you well, love?", Jon said as he lifted her into his arms. "Gods, you scared me half to death."_

_"Oh, it's 'love' now?", Dany bit out though the pain. "You could have fooled me, what with how you've gone through great pains to avoid me."_

_Jon winced slightly. He had a lot of explaining to do and no clue where to start. "I promise I have good reasons", Jon settled for, as he carried her away from Drogon. "I've had virtually no time to digest what I've learned, and I have no clue how you'll react to it. But I'll tell you everything once we've survived this, love. Right now I just need you to be safe."_

_Dany glared at him for a beat but ultimately backed down when the pain struck at her again. Jon turned to Rhaegal and the green beast blinked at him as though to silently thank him...before lowering himself to allow Jon to mount him._

_Jon got the message but Dany, unknowing of Jon's heritage, could only stare in disbelief as instinct took over and Jon climbed atop him with Dany still in his arms. Rhaegal took no order before flying them above Winterfell's walls and leaping into the courtyard in front of the main keep, Jon holding onto his spinal spikes like his life depended on it. It was a short flight, probably no more than a few seconds, but the exhilaration surged through Jon like wave, the sheer strength that emanated from below him like an elixir to his frayed nerves._

_Dany, who had become almost as pale as her hair from a mix of pain and shock, could only look at him in silent question as they carefully dismounted. Jon gave her a peck on the forehead in response. "As I said Dany, I have good reasons." He carried her into the main keep, with Rhaegal standing guard outside, as he carried her into the maester's chambers, both oblivious to the life-changing news they would receive._

Memory of that day spun through his head in a loop - their shock, Dany's denial, and the eventual burst of warmth and joy that followed even in the midst of the battle. They barely had time to bask in it before the sound of shouts and clashing steel and death throes carried Jon away from Dany and back into the fray. They had half a mind to run away to some part of the world where the dead couldn't find them, but the call of duty killed that dream almost as soon as it appeared. They wouldn't, and couldn't leave their child a world of bones and cold and ash. If for nothing else, they had duties as parents to leave the world a better place for their babe. _A wolf protects his pack, even if that pack has the odd dragon or two in there_ , Jon thought humorously. 

From the corner of his eye, he could see Drogon and Viserion spiraling towards the ground, clamped to each other by tooth and talon in a vortex of red and blue. A speck of silver on the black beast passed his gaze and Jon's heart stopped in his chest. He almost thought he heard Rhaegal's own cease beating for a moment too. In that moment, Rhaegal's inner fire flared to life, urging Jon to pursue them. Jon knew that the moment of reckoning was upon them - one last encounter with the Night King almost 3 years in the making. With a shuddering breath, dragon and rider both sprung into action towards the final battlefield - towards their greatest loves and towards their greatest enemy. And whether they fell or triumphed, they would do it together.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was just a random idea that came to me when I woke up. The opening scene was inspired by the last episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, where Azula and Zuko have one final Agni Kai. And I thought, hey! Fire-powered siblings clashing with each other during an apocalyptic event? What are the odds? And one idea made another and now...tada *throws confetti* 
> 
> Jon was always going to be the POV for this but somehow this turned into a Rhaegal-heavy fic? How???? Who knows, but I love my green middle child. 
> 
> Be sure to post and stuff! Blow my ass up if it makes my shit better!


End file.
